I’m confused by the amount of comments I see about how it’s crazy that Ivey didn’t get more minutes and that Killian was bad.
For Ivey, Monty has been super transparent. If you get blown by and cannot play defense, he’s going to hold you accountable. Tonight wasn’t his night offensively and so it makes sense between not having his offense going for him and being bad defensively that he only got the minutes he did.
For Killian, Monty has been very clear about him as well. He likes that he’s a big guard, that always makes the right decision, plays good defense. He hasn’t once said, I really like his ability to score or space the floor. That’s not why he’s getting his minutes so please stop box score watching and pay attention to what he’s actually contributing to the team.
It’s all about Cade, first and foremost.
And last night, we saw the Heat devote 2 or 3 defenders to Cade in the second half, and just ignore the hell out of everyone else. Cade fought through it for the hardest 30 point game I think I’ve seen in a long time.
Cade can’t continue to work that hard - he can’t carry that kind of offensive load night in and night out. He’s a chef out there, but on offense all he had to work with besides himself was dollar store macaroni and beef jerky. That he made something out of it is a sign of his skill.
Monty has said that he wants to save Cade’s energy from having to guard the best opposing perimeter player - but imo Cade expends more energy and takes more abuse if he’s the only perimeter creator/threat.
Hayes is better than people credit, but he is a complete non-threat to create off the bounce for himself or for anyone else - he is absolutely no threat to get to the rim. He cannot - literally cannot - go right for more than one dribble in traffic. He doesn’t put any pressure at all on opposing defenses - he’d be a good connector-type guard if we had multiple offensive weapons, but we don’t.
On offense, Ivey is exactly the kind of guy that Cade needs next to him - in theory. Puts a ton of pressure on the defense, can actually create for himself and others as opposed to having to have Cade create for him, and can actually create for Cade as well.
But right now, Ivey is totally out of sorts. It’s not too early to say it’s weird. Bad body language, super tentative and uncertain play.
My overall concern is that they keep going with an all-defense, zero-offense unit around Cade, and he breaks down under the load of trying to do everything.